The Future of Beauty: Magic Mirrors on the Wall

If Charlotte Tilbury’s recent Westfield store opening says anything about the future of physical retail, it confirms loud and clear that tech sits at the centre.

We know that tech is a key driver to get people into stores, even for brands such as Tilbury’s, which garners oodles of column inches around its popular product lines, which are endorsed by her celebrity mates, such as Kate Moss. But once in there, how do you keep the consumer’s attention? Enter Charlotte Tilbury’s ‘Magic Mirror’.

Walking into the plush art-deco inspired space, it was interesting to see the brand’s VR experience right at the entrance of the store.

And as you walk through the store, there are Augmented Reality screens dotted around which allow consumers to try on Tilbury’s famous 10 makeup looks without having to go anywhere near a makeup artist.

Developed in partnership with Holition (the augmented reality solutions provider) the looks are simulated on the Magic Mirror, using real-time tracking and realistic visualisation, in combination with skin tone detection and a recommendation process for suggesting the best look. Each look takes into account the customer’s skin colour and tones. The full range of products are available for try-on including foundation, blusher, eye shadow, eyeliner, mascara, lipliner, lipstick and contouring techniques. Shoppers can then email all the looks to themselves.

This means that consumers can try out all of her looks before Charlotte Tilbury’s makeup artists turn the virtual look into reality.

Charlotte Tilbury Magic Mirror

Playing with the AR experience in-store meant that I knew what I wanted when I met Charlotte Tilbury’s makeup artist (SJ), who deftly transformed me into a Golden Goddess, without the standard decision paralysis that comes from being too shy, or because you don’t know how to express what or who you might want to look like (Gisele with a side order of Rosie Huntington-Whitely, please?). And that’s the secret to the success of a brand strategy like this, make the AR experience useful, easy to use, seamless to execute and most importantly beneficial to the consumer.

I walked out of the store having never felt prettier – and that’s exactly what you want an innovative, tech-focused beauty brand to do.